How much is that doggie park in Manteca?
Try $248,000.
And while the city has money set aside to create a dog park it has no location.
So on Thursday the Manteca Parks and Recreation Commission will stage a meeting seeking public input on where the dog park should be located.
The 7 p.m. meeting takes place in the City Council chambers, 1001 W. Center St.
Among the sites that have been bantered about are:
Land adjacent to the Manteca Animal Shelter on Wetmore Street at South Main Street.
uA parcel adjacent to the Moffat Community Center on Moffat Boulevard that will double as the Manteca Veterans Center.
The northwest corner of Woodward Park.
Land immediately north of the Parks & Recreation office at the Civic Center where dog obedience classes are now conducted.
The Manteca Golf Park along Union Road south of the tennis courts and across the access road.
The list originally was longer but due to federal rules governing storm run-off prohibits placing dog parks in storm retention basins.
The Woodward Park and Manteca Golf Park locations do have issues. Both areas slope toward retention basins. That might be remedied with berming but other issues would still exist. One is both areas have extensive trees. While providing an ideal shade canopy, it would make it difficult for grass to grow under heavy use. A possible solution would be to thin trees at either location. Such a move may not prove popular to tree advocates.
Dog lovers in Manteca first sought a dog park in 2001. That was when the original plan was floated by several citizens led by Park West neighborhood resident Karen Grupe. A year later the Dog Owners Group of Manteca was organized.
In 2003 the council at the time approved establishing a canine recreational complex on the grass area west of the Manteca Senior Center rear parking lot and north of the Parks and Recreation building at the Civic Center complex. They had considered and rejected a proposal to place a dog park at the Manteca Golf Park directly across from the tennis courts on Union Road.
The Civic Center was viewed as a temporary location since it was believed expansion of city offices could require the land in 10 years. Twelve years later the city has neither created a dog park nor expanded city hall.
In 2007, the city adopted a site on the northeast corner of the 52-acre park where Woodward Avenue and Bridewell Avenue.